Coalition MP George Christensen is not someone who apologises for taking a hard-line stance. Whether it be same-sex marriage or the banking royal commission, he is accustom to being at odds with his electorate or his party.
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So perhaps it is not surprising the maverick three-term conservative sees no reason to say sorry to the voters of Dawson for spending more time in the Philippines than Parliament over a four-year period - a scandal that has made headlines around the country.
Mr Christensen has kept a lower profile since the controversy, and his adviser initially said he would not be available for an interview.
But following a pro-coal rally in Mackay's central square, the man himself was happy to talk. He dismissed the furore over his 294 days in the Philippines as "press gallery stuff" - not the concern of locals.
"No - it hasn't come up," Mr Christensen said when asked if he had apologised to voters. "No one here has raised it with me today. No one has raised it with me on the campaign trail."
Mr Christensen has not been to the Philippines since Scott Morrison became prime minister and says he no longer needs to because his fiancee is now in Australia. Voters will determine what matters, he says, but all he hears about are "local jobs and attacks on local industries".
Voters at the Caneland shopping centre on Sunday largely proved Mr Christensen right. Of the 30 people who spoke to the Herald and The Age, 20 said they did not care about the overseas trips, five said they cared and another five were not familiar with the issue.
And that was in central Mackay, where Mr Christensen lost every booth except pre-poll in 2016. He does much better further north, in towns such as Prosperpine, Bowen and Ayr.
Even those who don't subscribe to Mr Christensen's politics are unfazed by his absences. "It shows an openness that's not naturally common among conservative people," says Gunther Paul, a 54-year-old occupational health and safety researcher who knows his local MP from church. "He is more likely to engage with other cultures. Everybody travels a lot here."
But if Mr Christensen - dubbed "the member for Manila" by critics - loses one in six of his supporters, he will be vanquished from office. He holds the seat by a margin of 3.4 per cent - certainly not the tightest in north Queensland, but still too close for comfort.
Not surprisingly, Mr Christensen's Labor opponent, Belinda Hassan, thinks the Philippines jaunts are a "real issue" for voters. "Nobody gets 11 or 12 weeks a year annual leave," she says from her campaign office in central Mackay. "I don't think they care where he was or what he was doing or who he was with, I think they care that he wasn't here."
Coalition strategists say Mr Christensen's biggest asset is his brand recognition: he's a larger-than-life character not afraid to speak his mind - and that's attractive to Queensland voters. Mr Christensen says he would keep threatening to cross the floor if he believes it's in the best interests of Dawson.
"If you want to be well and truly in the political class you just do what you're told," he says.
"Local people here expect their member of Parliament - whoever it is - to stand up for their region and if that sometimes means going against the grain of their own political party then so be it."
But Mr Christensen's polarising nature means the gloves are off in this election battle. Ms Hassan, a funeral director and fifth-generation Mackay local, is not afraid to get personal when it comes to a $3.2 million cut to the Mackay Base Hospital she says is responsible for waiting lists that are "through the roof".
"Unlike Christensen, not everybody can afford to travel overseas and have an operation and dodge the waiting lists," she says, a dig at her opponent's weight-loss surgery in Malaysia.
Ms Hassan is fighting on a platform of boosting TAFE and resisting workforce casualisation, which she says is a sleeper issue in Mackay disguised by the low 3.7 per cent unemployment rate. She understands voters are disillusioned with both major parties but can't explain why they have gravitated toward minor parties such as Clive Palmer's or One Nation.
"You just can't understand the way people think," Ms Hassan says. She admits a preference deal between the Coalition and Mr Palmer is about to make her task much more difficult.
"It is a good deal they've stitched up, you can't deny that."
